Requiem (11 page)

“Kate—”

Kate shot to her feet, knocking over her glass, dislodging his hand.

“Just going to the loo—back in a moment.”

She hurried down the stairs to the toilets in the basement of the pub, almost falling in her haste to get away from him. She locked herself in a cubicle and sat on the closed seat for a moment, her hands over her eyes.
He’s married, he’s your boss; don’t go there. He’s married, he’s your boss; don’t go there
. She was shaken with the intensity of her desire, by the raw, urgent hunger she felt for him
. He’s married, even if it’s over. He’s your boss. Just get up, go back, smile, say goodbye, and leave.

As it turned out, she needn’t have worried. When she got back to the table, Olbeck and Jerry were there, deep in conversation with Anderton. He looked up briefly as she came back and smiled, a quick flicker meant solely for her. Kate sat down, grateful for the company of the others
.

F
or the rest of the evening, she barely said a word.

Chapter
Eighteen

There was no way that anyone would be questioning Nathan Vertz the next morning. Kate had been informed that when the doctor’s sedative had worn off, Vertz had launched a bleary attack on his cell door: kicking it, shouting, rebounding off the frame to stumble to his knees. The doctor had been called again and had examined him, announcing that no interrogation would be possible for some time. Two representatives from the Mental Health Team were called and spent several hours with Vertz in his cell. Anderton had him under twenty-four-hour observation. Kate knew as well as Anderton that if a vulnerable suspect wanted to kill themselves, they would do their best to find a way.

“I’ve not lost one on my watch yet
, and I’m not about to start now,” Anderton said, striding ahead of Kate down the corridor back to the office. “We’ve got another day, and then we’ll have to charge him or let him go again.”

“I know,” puffed Kate, hurrying to keep up. She wondered whether she’d mistaken that electric moment between the two of them the night before. Thank God she hadn’t done anything about it. Best to put it to the back of her mind once more and focus all her energies on the job.

This good intention buoyed her up for all of five minutes once she sat down at her desk. She was very tired after a restless night
with bad dreams and fractured sleep. She made herself a strong coffee, rubbed her eyes, and sat down to bury herself in paperwork. For once, she was glad of Olbeck sitting across from her and moaning softly that his head was killing him. He still found time to respond to whomever it was that kept sending him text messages, sending his phone buzzing and skittering across the desk like a large, shiny insect.

“Would you turn that off?” snapped Kate eventually, unable to take any more.

Olbeck gave her a hurt look. Kate pinched the bridge of her nose and tried to concentrate. Something was nagging at the back of her mind. Something about a phone message. She stared mindlessly into space for five minutes before she remembered.

She took out her own phone and hunted through the applications until she came to her photograph storage. There was the one she’d taken of the screen of Peter Buckley’s laptop, the picture of the email that had piqued her curiosity.

From:
[email protected]

To:
[email protected]

Subject: Alice

Message: got those files you were looking for. Check new website
https://www.nys1016.com
.

Kate brought up an internet browser on her computer and typed in the website address. A blank blue screen came up with a password
-protected log-in box in the middle. Kate frowned. She tried typing in Peter’s name and ‘password,’ then his email address and ‘password.’ Error messages came up. She sat back, blowing out her cheeks. There was no way she was going to be able to guess his password, and she didn’t know whether the site would automatically log her out after a certain number of erroneous attempts. She tapped her pen against her jaw for a moment and then picked up the phone.

“I’m heading down to IT,” she said to Olbeck after a short telephone conversation. He grunted, finally intent on his work.

“Hi Sam,” said Kate to Sam
Hollington, the youngest, newest and keenest member of the Abbeyford team’s Information and Technology Department.

“Hi Kate. What’ve you got for me?”

Sam had a round face, round wire-framed spectacles, and a mop of curly black hair. He reminded Kate of a Labrador puppy, in the nicest possible way.

“Can you check out a website for me? Who owns it, who the domain is registered to
—anything, really.”

“No probs.
Gimme the URL and leave it with me.”

Kate resisted the urge to pat him on the head. “You’re a star. Thanks Sam.”

“When do you need it?”

Kate paused, her hand on the door handle.

“No real hurry,” she said. “It’s probably not important. Whenever you can do it.”

“Righto.”

Checking her watch as she reached the ground floor
—IT was located in the depths of the basement—Kate could see it was nearly one o’clock. Lunchtime. She hesitated, debating whether to drag Olbeck to the canteen or head outside to grab some fresh air and a sandwich. The lure of the outside won. She pushed the door open to the station foyer and immediately spotted Jay and Courtney, waiting side by side on the uncomfortable chairs against the wall. Both of them looked scared and small and young.

Kate reached them in three large strides. They both stood up together and the three of them stood in an odd little huddle for a moment.

Kate put both of her hands on their arms, one on each.

“What’s wrong?”

Jay swallowed. His face was noticeably thinner, his eyes ringed with shadow.

“I’ve come to change my statement,” he said.

The floor rocked for a moment. Kate closed her eyes and opened them again.

Courtney put her hand into Kate’s, much as she had when she was a little girl.

“Sis—“

“Why
—why now, Jay?” whispered Kate. She had a sudden, piercing flash of memory: baby Jay in her mother’s arms, smiling gummily up at his big sister, clamping his tiny fingers around Kate’s thumb. He used to grab onto her fingers while she was feeding him and pull her hand up and down as he sucked at the bottle, surprisingly strong for a baby. She fought the urge to turn him around bodily and push him back out the door into the street, before it was too late.

“I have to,
sis,” he said. He was deathly pale, but his chin was up, his shoulders squared. Kate knew she couldn’t stop him. She stepped back, Courtney’s hand slipping from hers.

Kate handed Jay over to Theo and watched as the two men walked away along the corridor to the interview rooms. Her ears buzzed. What was Jay going to say? What was he going to confess
to? A bubble of nausea came up into her throat.

Courtney was still standing beside her, almost hanging onto her arm. Kate turned to her little sister.

“Do you—do you know this is about?”

Courtney, her eyes huge, her mouth pinched, nodded.

Kate swallowed. “I can’t talk to you right now, Courtney. Don’t wait. You should go home.”

Courtney shook her head.

“I want to wait for Jay.”

How could Kate tell her that she might wait all night, all the next day? How could she tell her that he might not be released at all?

She put her hands on Courtney’s shoulders.

“Don’t wait here, darling. It might take
—it might take a long time. Why not go home?”

“I don’t want to.”

“All right,” Kate said helplessly. “How about I give you some money and you find yourself a coffee shop or something? Have a look around the shops?”

For a second she thought Courtney was going to argue with her. Then the younger woman’s eyes fell and she nodded.

“Okay.”

Kate pulled her into a quick hug.

“Give me a sec,” she said, her mouth against Courtney’s messy hair. “Let me get my purse. I won’t be long.”

She ran along the corridor and up the stairs, not waiting for the lifts. What room had Jay been taken to? At her desk, Kate grabbed her handbag and riffled through it for her purse. The phone on her desk rang.

She hesitated. For a moment, she was determined not to answer it. Then duty got the better of her and she snatched it up.

“Kate Redman.”

“Kate, it’s Sam.” For a second, she had to think about who that was. Because of her state of mind, it took her a moment to recognise his voice.

“Sam, I’m kind of busy right now
—”

“It’s about that website you asked me to look at.” Now she could hear the shock in his voice. “I think you need to see it.”

“Oh God—” Kate squeezed her eyes shut for a second. “Can’t it wait?”

“I think you need to see it.”

Kate breathed out as slowly as she could, tamping down a scream of frustration. It wasn’t Sam’s fault, after all.

“Okay,” she said, after a moment. “I’m on my way.”

She pounded back to the foyer, tucked a tenner in Courtney’s hand and kissed her. “Now, don’t
worry
,” she emphasized, gently propelling her sister out of the station entrance. “Come back in a few hours. Text me and I’ll come down and meet you.”

Courtney gave her a wan smile and trotted obediently down the station steps at the entrance. Kate watched her cross the road and waved when she turned back for a last look before disappearing around the corner. Then Kate swivelled on her heel and ran back across the foyer, heading for the steps to the basement. She had to physically force herself past the turn off to the interview rooms. What in God’s name was Jay confessing to in there?

Sam met her at the door to the IT department. His round, friendly face was pale, his freckles standing out.

“What is it?” asked Kate, trying not to sound as impatient as she felt.

He said nothing but beckoned her towards his desk. His monitor was showing a screensaver of a poster from the film
Watchmen
.

“I know you didn’t ask me to hack into it,” Sam said, bent over his desk and keying in what was obviously his password. “But I thought I’d give it a go. Anyway
—”

“You can do that?” Kate said, moving closer.

Sam gave her a worried grin from over his shoulder. “Yeah, of course. But anyway, I wish I hadn’t.” He straightened up and looked around to see if anyone was near them. “Look.”

He moved away from the screen. Kate heard herself grunt, an involuntary noise of shock. Hand to her mouth, she took in the images on the screen. Nice Young Sluts! screamed the header. Kate’s gaze moved from one girl to the other. Incredibly, some were smiling, or at least their teeth were bared. Most were not.

“Oh my God.”

Sam and Kate exchanged a glance of shared horror. Then Kate put her hand over her eyes.

“Put the screen saver on again. Please.”

Sam tapped keys. Kate sat down heavily in his seat.

“Did you find out who it’s registered to?” she said, after a moment of catching her breath.

“Of course. That’s the first thing I did. The WHOIS was cloaked, but I soon got past that.” He took a sheet of paper from his in-tray. “It’s all on there. There you are. Registered to a G. Lightbody. The sick bugger.”

Kate grabbed the paper from him and tried to hold it steady in her shaking hand. There it was, in black and white. She stared at the name and then past it, seeing nothing, her mind whirring. There was a moment of blackness, of staring into the void, and then a massive flare of light, comprehension exploding in a burst of sparks. She actually saw it, like fireworks in her mind.

“What should I do?” said Sam. “I’m kind of freaked out by that being on my computer.”

Kate leapt up.

“Get everything you can on it,” she said, already moving away. “Screenshots, print outs, anything. Whatever trail you can find from that site. IP addresses, any emails,
anything
. Get everyone onto it.”

“Really?” said Sam. “Everyone?”

“Everyone. Thanks Sam. Got to go!”

She was already running by the time she got to the door. She leapt up the stairs, paused for a quick scan of the foyer
—no sign of Courtney—before running up to the office. Olbeck was there, just putting on his coat.

“Come with me,” gasped Kate, so breathless she could barely form the words.

“Where are we going?”

She grabbed his arm and pulled.

“Anderton’s office. Right now.”

Chapter Nineteen

At nine o’clock that night, Kate was slumped on her sofa with Courtney, the two of them digesting a greasy Chinese takeaway. Watching television, she had the surreal experience of seeing herself on the news. It had happened a couple of times before, but she still hadn’t got used to it. There she was, flanking Graham Lightbody as he was escorted from the grounds of Rawlwood College. Anderton loomed on the other side of him. Lightbody was a small man, but he looked even more shrunken on the screen. He’d been trembling as they walked away towards the police car.

Kate could see her own face on the screen, just briefly in
the shot as she got into the car after their suspect; she was frowning and trying not to. She wondered whether the viewers of the local news would notice. Would they realise it was because she was concentrating hard on not punching Graham Lightbody in the face?

“Look, it’s you,” exclaimed Courtney. “Look,
sis! You’re on the news.”

“I know.” Kate struggled up to a sitting position.

“You’re famous.”

“Hardly. Anyway, everyone will be looking at him, not me.”

“That sick bastard.” Courtney looked towards the floor, her hair falling forward to hide her face. Kate knew she was thinking about Peter Buckley. Had
he
been arrested yet? She hoped so. Anderton had expressly forbidden her to be a part of that team. Kate had capitulated without protest, knowing she wouldn’t be able to trust herself with either Peter Buckley or her mother.

As if summoned by thought, Kate’s mobile rang and the name Mary Redman flashed up on the screen. Caught unawares, Kate had time to think
why don’t I have her number saved as ‘Mum?’
She pressed the button to take the call before she could come up with the answer.

“You bitch, Kelly!”

From years of experience, Kate could usually gauge her mother’s precise level of drunkenness simply by the slur in her voice. This time, Mary’s inebriation was harder to place, though, given the fury that was emanating from the receiver.

“Mum
—”

“Don’t fucking ‘mum’ me! I bet you were just waiting for the chance to ruin things for me, weren’t you? It’s those coppers
who have ruined you, you think the worst of everyone, you can’t even treat your own mother with a bit of respect—”

Courtney was looking at her, wide
-eyed. Kate tried to smile reassuringly through the battering of her right ear drum.

“Mum
—”

“You’re a liability, Kelly, you never had no respect for me, ever
—”

“You’re drunk,” said Kate. She said it coldly, trying to keep a lid on her own anger.

“So what if I fucking am? You’re driving me to it.”

“I want to talk to you when you’re sober.”

“I know why you did this,” said Mary, half sobbing. Kate heard the smash of a glass on the other end of the line and winced. “You’re jealous. Jealous of me.”

Kate laughed mirthlessly. She could feel
her hold on her temper gradually slipping, like an oiled bottle through slick fingers.

“Yeah, right, Mum. I’m jealous.”

“Too right you are. Perhaps if you got yourself a man, you wouldn’t go around trying to ruin everyone’s else’s. Eh? Eh, Kelly? Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me I’m wrong! Tell me—”

Kate pressed the ‘end call’ button as viciously as she could. Then she threw the phone down hard on the sofa and fought the urge to punch the cushion next to her
while screaming out her rage. Instead, she dropped her head into her hands, breathing raggedly. After a moment, she felt the timid touch of Courtney’s hand on her trembling shoulder.

“Sis?” Courtney whispered.

Kate sat up and smoothed her hair back, breathing deeply.

“It’s all right,” she began. “Listen, Courtney—”

T
he doorbell interrupted her.

“Who’s that?” Courtney said, getting up and moving towards the door.

“Wait.” Kate put a hand out to stop her. She had a horrible feeling it might be press, although that might just be paranoia from watching herself on the news. She peeked cautiously out from behind the living room curtains. It was a man on the doorstep but who it was, she couldn’t quite make out…in that moment, the figure turned, and she realised it was Jay.

“Are you okay? Are you okay?” was all that she could say, moments later
, as she stood with her arms around him on the doorstep, the two of them swaying slightly. The police had let him go. She tightened her arms around him for a moment, squeezing him so he cried out in mock protest.

Kate released him. By now, Courtney had come into the hallway. She shrieked and flung herself at her brother.

“Jesus,” he gasped, staggering backwards. “I’m all right. Let me sit down, at least.”

The two girls half dragged him into the living room and pushed him down onto the sofa.

“They let you go,” said Courtney, still hugging him.

Jay smiled up at Kate. He had a strange kind of euphoria about him
—a shaky sort of smile pinned to his face. He put one arm around Courtney and leant back, sighing out what sounded like a long-pent-up breath.

Kate sat down on the other chair. She was so relieved she was almost shaking. If they’d released him, then that meant…

“What happened, Jay?”

“Can I have a drink first?”

Kate got him a glass of wine, the last of the bottle that Olbeck had brought with him on the night they’d first seen Nathan Vertz on the small screen. Jay tossed it back in three mouthfuls.

“I needed that,” he said with a gasp in his voice.

“What
happened
?”

“I changed my statement.”

“They didn’t charge you?”

“
Charge
me? Of course not. Charge me with what? I got a caution, that’s all.”

“A caution…” Kate got up and began pacing around the room. Then she came and sat down again.

“Tell me—tell us about it.”

Jay put a hand to his forehead for a second, rubbing his temple.

“It was all over the papers…about Nathan Vertz, I mean. How he was under arrest for Elodie’s murder.” Kate nodded, listening intently. “Well, sis, that’s when I knew I had to do something. I knew he couldn’t have killed her.”

“How did you know?” whispered Kate. Despite the fact he’d been released, despite the fact he was her brother, a tiny part of her was dreading hearing him say the words
because I killed her
.

But of course, he hadn’t. Jay confirmed that with his next sentence.

“I knew he couldn’t have killed her because he was with me most of the night. We were definitely together during the time of the murder.”

“With you?”

“Yeah.” For the first time, Jay dropped his gaze.

“Right,” said Kate. “Clearly you mean
—what do you mean? What were you doing?”

Jay had a small, sheepish smile on his lips.

“Massive amounts of charlie, sis. I’m sorry.”

“Charlie? Cocaine? Oh Jay
—” Kate checked herself, the first exclamation of anger choked down. Now was not the time for a lecture on the perils of drugs. “All right, I’m not thrilled to hear that. But we’ll get to that later. You and Nathan were together on the night Elodie died?”

“Yeah. Most of the night, actually. You know how it is
—” Now it was Jay’s turn to check himself. “All right, so you don’t know how it is. Anyway—I knew he wasn’t anywhere near Elodie for most of the night. Tom vouched for him too.”

“Tom?”

“Lorelei’s singer. He wasn’t with us all night—he just bought some weed off Nathan and went home—but he was there for some of it.”

Kate sighed and sat back against the back of the sofa. She looked at her brother with a mixture of pride, anger and exasperation.

“Why now, Jay?” she asked. “Why come clean now? When I think of all that time I spent trying to persuade you to even give a bloody statement… Why on Earth didn’t you mention this when they arrested you, for God’s sake?”

Jay rolled his eyes. “Why d’you think? I didn’t fancy getting banged up in the slammer for doing Class A’s, did I? I knew they had no evidence that showed I had anything to do with Elodie being killed. I mean, I know that because I didn’t do it. I was
going
to mention it if I thought they wouldn’t let me go. Tom would have backed me up if he had to, just like he did for Nathan.”

“So you put yourself back in danger of arrest to clear Nathan Vertz’s name?” said Kate, slowly. “Why? He’s not your friend. I didn’t even know you knew him.”

“I barely do know him. That wasn’t why I did it.” Jay looked Kate directly in the eyes, as if to give extra weight to his next few words. “I did it for Elodie.”

“Elodie
—”

Jay nodded. “I did it for Elodie. She loved Nathan. I mean, she really loved him. I didn’t like him, I didn’t like him giving her drugs
, but it was her decision, after all. He didn’t push her into it. She loved him, and he loved her.”

“But what about you?” Kate leant forward and put her hand on Jay’s arm. “You loved her too, didn’t you?”

Jay had a strange expression on his face, half smile, half grimace. He shook his head.

“I liked her,” he said slowly. “I fancied her. I thought sometimes I
did
love her, or that I was in love with her, whatever you want to call it. But there was something that put me off. Elodie was hard work. She wasn’t…there was something wrong with her. Something damaged. Christ knows I’ve had enough practice at spotting that. Know what I mean, sis? Eh, Courtney?”

His two sisters didn’t agree or contradict him. They were all at that moment thinking of their mother and their chaotic childhood, the childhood that they seemed to have come through in one piece, if only just.

Kate glanced at her mobile phone, half hidden beneath a cushion.
You bitch, Kelly
. What kind of mother said that to her own child?

Jay went on. “I guess I just knew, somehow, that I had to leave her well alone. I knew she’d be bad for me.”

Kate opened her mouth to speak, but he hadn’t finished.

“Maybe I should have, though,” he said quietly. “Maybe I should have. I don’t know. Right now, I’m feeling like I
—I let her down. That I should have tried harder to help her. That’s why I had to do what I just did. Because I feel like I let Elodie down, and I should have done more to help her. This is the only thing I could do.”

His voice broke and he put a hand up to his eyes. Courtney put an arm around him from where she was sitting next to him on the sofa and laid her cheek against his shuddering back.

Kate sat back, easing the ache in her shoulders.

“What about you, Courtney?” she asked, feeling as if she may as well uncover all the dark secrets at once. “What were you trying to tell me the other day? Was it about Jay? Or was i
t…” She stopped and swallowed. “Was it about Peter?”

Courtney didn’t blush. Instead her features seemed to shrink a little, pulling together as if something w
ere tightening inside her. Kate saw, and her heart sank.

“Oh Christ,” she said. “Did he do something to you? What did he do?”

Courtney shook her head violently, and Kate remembered to breathe again.

“Not me,” she said. “He never laid a finger on me. I saw him taking photos of Jade.”

Kate’s lungs locked up again. “Photos? What kind of photos?”

Courtney shook her head again, her big
, dark eyes wide.

“Not
those
kind. Just pictures on his phone. But I just—I didn’t like it. I thought it was weird. ‘Cos Jade didn’t know he was taking them. I didn’t know who to tell, what to do or nothing.”

Kate pressed her trembling hands together. She thought of her little sister, fourteen years old
, and Peter Buckley lurking behind doors and windows with his phone, snapping away. If she saw that man again, she would kill him and sod her job. She took a deep breath.

“Did you tell Mum?”

Jay half laughed. Courtney, looking miserable, nodded. “What did she say?”

“She just went crazy mad. Shouted a lot and told me I was wrong.”

Kate sat silently, almost felled again by another wave of anger, this time against her mother. How could Mary be so blind, so unreasonable; how
could
she? To think of poor Courtney, trying to do the best she could for her baby sister, verbally and possibly physically abused by the one person who was supposed to keep her daughters safe… For a moment, she found herself reaching for her mobile, determined to have it out with her mother, before sanity prevailed and she sat back against the cushions of the sofa, clenching her teeth with suppressed rage.

She pulled herself together. Courtney and Jay were looking at her anxiously. She sat up straight and tried to smile reassuringly at them. She wasn’t a mother (
not a
real
one at least
, that hateful little voice whispered) but with these two, she felt like more than a big sister. They were her responsibility. They had to be, because who else was going to look after them?